A motion control system is used in different positioning applications, e.g. single-axis positioning or multiple-axis positioning. A single-axis positioning motion control system includes a motion controller, a servo amplifier, and a motor. Motion of the motor follows a designated trajectory, such that state and/or control constraints, i.e., acceleration, velocity, jerk, are observed. A trajectory can also be designed to reduce the vibration induced by the motion of a motor.
A conventional motion control system employs a controller which generates a time-optimal trajectory to maximize the throughput of industrial systems. However, some conventional methods for generating the trajectories disregard the energy consumption of the motion control system, and can lead to a high peak power and a waste of energy. The waste of energy is clearly undesirable and should be avoided. Also, the high peak power demand is also undesirable from a cost effective point of view, because users of the motion control systems may have to pay penalized electric bill when the power consumption exceeds certain upper bound.
Another method determines the trajectory such that the energy consumption of the motion control system is below a specified threshold. However, those methods do not consider trade off between the energy consumption and performance of the system and the generated trajectories are not always optimal. Yet another method balances the energy consumption and the productivity of the motion control system without considering constraints of the system. This is because the solution to the trajectory optimization problem with various constraints including velocity, acceleration, and current constraints is difficult and yet to be solved.
Another disadvantage of conventional motion control systems is a lack of adaptability, because the requirements of the motion control systems can change over time and/or in dependence of the applications. For example, for some applications, the users may pay more attention to the energy consumption of the motion control system over its productivity.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide a motion control system that makes an effective trade off between the energy consumption and the productivity of the motion control system, such that the overall cost of the operations of the motion control system is reduced. Furthermore, there is a need to provide such trade off that considers various constraints of the motion control system including velocity, acceleration, and current constraints.